It is grey and miserable outside as I start to write at 6.37am. I have consulted Siri on my iPhone (Alexa is having a lie in as it is Saturday and she has had a busy week with James Blunt, Procul Harem, Petula Clarke, the Choir of St., Paul’s Cathedral and others). She - Siri that is - tells me that it is "currently sleeting and 2 degrees in Ilford. Expect snow starting in the morning. Temperatures are heading down from 2 degrees this morning to 1 degree this afternoon.” In fact, the sleet has stopped!
In the Bransgore area of Dorset (where eldest son Graham lives) "it is raining and 5 degrees. With sleet and snow starting this morning and temperature dropping to minus 2 tonight”. Colder tonight on the south coast than in Ilford!
In Oslo Norway (the home of youngest son Richard) its is "currently clear and minus 11. Tonight’s high will be minus 3 degrees and the low minus 12”. No snow there then, but mighty cold.
Siri does not recognise Chigwell in Essex - but gives me the weather for Trigwell - wherever that may be! But I guess it will be similar to Ilford.
In Lynton Devon where my granddaughter resides they will have snow this morning but the temperatures will drop tonight to minus 3! Even colder there! Wow!
I have had my iPhone mobile for almost 18 months and only discovered Siri when Grandson Marlon showed me a week or so ago. I can now ring friends on my contact list by asking Siri to do so. I take her into the bathroom when I have a shower, place her on the shelf outside and if I get stuck in the shower cubicle, I can ask Siri to call Heather to the rescue.
Socks is now fully recovered from his bout of fur loss. Two visits to the Vet and a steroid injection have done the trick. Otherwise he is very healthy for a 15-year old. Mind you, he should be because I buy only the very best gourmet and soup meals from Pets at Home, often spending almost as much on him as I do on myself next door at Aldi! A spoiled cat, but he is very good company - except that he wakes me and insists I rise at 6am, even on a Saturday!
So wither today? I need to put up posters about the Great British Spring Clean in Aldborough Hatch around the Church Halls (see posters attached for your information). I may leave this till later in the hope that it snows and I can take some photographs of the brilliant display of Tete a Tete daffodils in the churchyard in the snow - 6,000 bulbs planted over three years are now in full bloom. I have attached a shot taken last Sunday - more are out now.
I also need to go shopping - but that may have to wait till Monday. You may be amused to know (and yet you may not) that yesterday I ordered online from Lakeland a new squeezee floor mop for my lovely cleaner, Daphne. It has a proper sponge to take up the water - the replacement I bought in Ilford a month or so ago has very thin sponge-like stuff that does not work properly, but it only cost me a fiver whereas the Lakeland version is a deluxe purchase. Daphne explained all this to me - and rather than purchase locally something that will not last, I have gone to the very best shop for this kind of thing - and Yvonne’s favourite. I did not fancy carrying it from the nearest Lakeland shop in Stratford Westfield - on the train and bus! A bit over the top, but it will mean I will continue to have clean floors in the kitchen, bathroom and toilet.
Reverting to the Great British Spring Clean in Aldborough Hatch, this is on Saturday 31st March. Jenny Chalmers, Chairman, Aldborough Hatch Defence Association, is organising the event and I am doing some PR. We met yesterday with Chris Gannaway to iron out the details - Jenny makes a mean cup of coffee and splendid cakes and biscuits. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. Redbridge Council are loaning litter pickers and we have our own from previous clean-ups. Filled sacks will be collected from outside the church halls by Redbridge Council the same afternoon - so will not be there over the bank holiday weekend. Last time we found a remarkably high number of Vodka bottles in Oaks Lane. I wonder what we will find this time? Do please try to spare an hour or two. Let’s go out in force and show the litter droppers and the fly-tippers that we have had enough.
